Coventry Blaze have moved clear at the top of the Findus British National League after scrapping out two wins.

Poor ice stopped the Blaze?s fluency in both matches, with one Coventry player saying the condition of the surface at the Skydome was ?the worst I?ve ever seen.?

If the Skydome management can solve the problems, which have dogged Blaze all season, Coventry will be able to move their game up another level.

And they will need to after getting four points that put them in the top spot, with a 2-1 win at Fife and 5-4 victory over Hull.

Coach Paul Thompson said: ?Hopefully we can keep the charge going and stay at the top. We left it a bit late ? we should have shut the door earlier in both games.?

o Blaze won a scrappy affair in Fife on Saturday, holding on for the away win despite heavily out-shooting their opponents.

Fife came out with all guns blazing, aware that their short bench would count against them at the end of the game. But their efforts to unsettle Coventry proved fruitless though, Blaze holding their discipline well.

Weakened themselves with GB call-ups for James Pease and Russ Cowley and missing the injured Mathias Soderstrom, Blaze took the lead on 18 minutes when a Ron Shudra shot found its way through traffic.

Steve Briere in the Fife goal proved the barrier to Coventry running up a bigger score and in the second period both sides netted.Frank Morris tucked in a scrappy goal to equalise, while the ever hard working Hilton Ruggles broke away from centre ice to get a short-handed effort for Blaze that proved to be the game-winning goal.

Try as they could, Coventry could not add to the total, despite hitting the post three times and having seven breakaways.

Andreas Moborg talked himself into a ten minute misconduct, and with Adam Radmall tiring, having spent more time on the ice than ever for the Blaze, Joel Poirier was forced to drop back.

But while Blaze were running out of steam, so were Fife, and Jody Lehman only had two shots on goal to contend with in the final period.

o Hull came to the Skydome yesterday with much more promise than their last visit ? which ended in a 12-1 defeat.

The opening exchanges were fluent and even. Ashley Tait put Coventry in the lead with the second rebound from an original shot on the powerplay by Ron Shudra.

Joanathan Weaver roofed a shot to bring Hull back, only for Joel Poirier to collect a Tait pass, shoot and Tait scooped up a rebound.

A bad bounce off the boards saw Jody Lehman stranded well out of his net for Hull?s second, the puck passing the open goal for a simple effort by Paul Ferone.

In the second period, Ruggles got a powerplay goal from a Michael Tasker shot through traffic to restore Coventry?s lead.

But it was Ron Shudra?s excellence for Blaze?s fourth that seemed to anger Hull. Defending a penalty, Hull broke clear, only for the Coventry defence to break it up.

As happened so many times during the night, it was the second defenceman in who cleared the danger, and Shudra scooped the puck up the ice before heading to the Hull end to finish a classy move.

For no obvious reason Hull forward Mike Morin was incandescent over the goal, and collected 10+game.

At the end of the period Hull?s Ferone and Marc West also confronted the referee, with Ferone having to be restrained, collecting 10+game+match for his antics.

Thunder could have thrown in the towel when Joel Poirier scored a fifth on the powerplay, but they kept going.